Few Options for Lagging T-Mobile

T-Mobile USA, the weaker partner in the now-collapsed proposed deal with AT&T, has few good options to thrive in the competitive wireless market in the United States.

Industry analysts also could not predict a course for the company. “T-Mobile is probably going to be profoundly damaged by this,” said Tero Kuittinen, a senior analyst at M.G.I. Research. “They should have done some strategic rethinking instead of chasing this mirage, this dream of a merger. Now they’ve lost a lot of time.” Some analysts thought that T-Mobile might pursue a partnership with another wireless carrier, or even the satellite TV operator Dish, which had expressed interest if the deal with AT&T did not go through. T-Mobile does not have a lot of attractive options, analysts said. “Both companies will have to go back and lick their respective wounds and consider their options,” said Craig Moffett, a research analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. T-Mobile is in a precarious position because it has not yet begun to significantly deploy its infrastructure for a speedy fourth-generation, or 4G, network. That tardiness could cause it to slide even further behind the three larger competitors.

Even without a strong 4G network, T-Mobile’s spectrum is still a valuable asset. The company could negotiate with Sprint to share its 4G infrastructure. In the United States, carriers have historically not done that, but it is a common practice in other countries, like China, where AT&T recently agreed to share a cell network with China Telecom. Recent upgrades to Sprint’s network, which is not compatible with T-Mobile’s infrastructure, have been designed to help Sprint’s towers host other spectrum bands. That could help bridge the technical incompatibility issues between Sprint and T-Mobile.